David Innes
David Innes is a character featured in the Pellucidar Series book by Edgar Rice Burroughs.ERB was attempting branch off from both John Carter and Tarzan,with character.Pellucidar is a fictional Hollow Earth milieu invented by Edgar Rice Burroughs for a series of action adventure stories.Burroughs,more than likely,did believe such theories,but could pass up using such a neat idea to tell his new series of stories. These initially involve the adventures of mining heir David Innes and his inventor friend Abner Perry after they use an “iron mole” to burrow 500 miles into the Earth’s crust (“At The Earth’s Core”). Later protagonists include indigenous cave man Tanar and additional visitors from the surface world, notably Tarzan, Jason Gridley, and Frederich Wilhelm Eric von Mendeldorf und von Horst. David Innes and the Hollow Earth Series David Innes is a character in the Hollow Earth Pellucidar book series by Edgar Rice Burroughs Origins of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Pellucidar Series — Hollow Earthers By Michael D. Sellers On September 23, 2012 · · In ERBZINE, Featured When we read and think about Barsoom, Amtor, and the there worlds created by Edgar Rice Burroughs it’s easy to look at the creations from the perspective of 2012 …. but a lot more interesting to look at them from the perspective of the time in which they were written. Take Pellucidar — the world within the Earth discovered by David Innes and Abner Perry. Burroughs began writing “At the Earth’s Core” in January 1913 at a time when there was a substantial body of belief that a world existed within our world — a “hollow earth” theory in which there were entrances to the inner world at one or the other (or both) of the poles. Erbzine summarizes the Pellucidar series : David Innes and Abner Perry build a giant mechanical prospector with which they hope to uncover vast mineral David Innes and Abner Perry build a giant mechanical prospector with which they hope to uncover vast mineral deposits far beneath the surface. On the “Iron Mole’s” first trip, however, they discover that their vehicle can’t be steered. Death seems certain, for doesn’t everyone know that the center of the Earth is a molten mass of white-hot magma? Instead what Innes and Perry discover is that the earth’s crust in only 500 miles thick and that the inner surface is inhabited. This is the land of PELLUCIDAR, a place where dinosaurs roam through the jungles, and where saber-toothed tigers hunt the mastodon and mammoth. A tiny sun, the molten core of the Earth, hangs in the center of the heavens, shedding perpetual daylight upon Pellucidar. Because the sun never sets, because it is always now, there is no such thing as time in Pellucidar! Stranger still, because Pellucidar rests on the inner side of the Earth’s crust, there is no horizon. The land curves * upwards, as if you were standing on the inside of a gigantic bowl. The hollow earth theory,a bit of a crackpot thinking,is actually a unscientific version of a dyson sphere.A dyson sphere,being a huge ball constructed about a star,where people live on the inside.So, mainstream scientists today believe that the Earth under our feet has a lot of molten rock and metal filling it and have gathered a lot of pretty solid evidence for it. The only complication is that we've never been able to send a human down more than several miles to actually study it up close, largely because No One Could Survive That. Which is why since times that are Older Than Radio, early scientists, writers and more than a few crackpots have believed that there just might be something...or indeed, someone (say, Ultra Terrestrials)...down there, possibly powered by a suitably sized sun in the center. The most known early example is Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, although he likely drew from theories of his time. When science started to switch over to the modern view of Earth's composition the idea of the hollow earth became a Discredited Trope, but later generations of Speculative Fiction writers took up the concept and revitalized it. Sci-Fi works bring us hollow world concepts such as the Dyson Sphere, which is a Hollow World taken to a solar system scale, and other variations of artificially constructed worlds.Note that its usual configuration, with people walking about on the inner surface, wouldn't work; a hollow sphere has no net gravitational pull on any object inside it (although some theorists, such as John Symmes, claim that this actually could work due to the centrifugal force caused by the planet's rotation. However, it would still have to be very low, otherwise the planet itself would break apart note ).A related belief is that of "Concave Hollow Earth": that Earth is actually a hollow bubble inside an infinite mass of rock.A sub-trope of World Shapes and, in more modern works, an example of All Theories Are True. Compare Beneath the Earth, Dyson Sphere. When the inhabitants don't know they're in a hollow world, it may become City in a Bottle.Burroughs was ahead of his time and the concept of a ringworld or dyson sphere or a space colony,not even dreamed up yet.Terra-Prime,would be a great example of melding Pellicidar with the Dyson sphere concept. Humans dwell in Pellucidar as well, stone-age men and women who must fight to survive in this savage world. Even worse, these people have been made slaves of the Mahars, a race of intelligent but sinister reptiles who look upon humans as nothing more than beast of burden or as tasty snacks in one of their ghoulish ceremonies. The struggle of David Innes and Abner Perry to free humanity from the Mahar tyranny is only the beginning of their adventures in Pellucidar. There are a total of seven books in this exciting series, in which Edgar Rice Burroughs takes you on journeys across savage seas infested with plesiosaurs and other hungry creatures, to mountains where pterodactyls roost, and to lands where every waking moment is a struggle to survive. Even Tarzan visits Pellucidar, taking a ride on a dirigible through “Symmes Hole” at the North Pole. So take a journey, via Iron Mole or dirigible, and discover for yourself the wonders, the terrors, and the excitement of Pellucidar… The roots of “Hollow Earth” theory go back at least as far as the 17th Century, when British astronomer Edmund Halley put forward the theory that Earth consists of four concentric spheres. Under Halley’s concept, the interior or the earth was populated with life and lit by a luminous atmosphere. Under his theory the aurora borealis, or northern lights, was a phenomenon that was caused by the escape of this gas through a thin crust at the poles. In the 1800′s John Symmes vigorously promoted the idea of an inner world and eventually received recognition in the form of “Symmes Hole” … the opening to the inner world. Symmes lobbied publicly for an expedition to the North Pole to find the entrance to the world below. Another promoter of the hollow earth theory, Cyrus Reed Teed, promoted the idea of a hollow earth for nearly forty years, printing pamphlets and giving speeches and founding a cult called the Koreshans. In 1906, William Reed published The Phantom of the Poles, in which he put forward the theory that the poles are entrances to the hollow Earth. In 1913, the same year that ERB started writing At the Earth’s Core, Marshall B. Gardner published, privately, Journey to the Earth’s Interior, which postulated a hollow earth with an interior sun 600 miles in diameter. It’s unlikely that Burroughs read all of these — it is equally unlikely that he read none of them. Burroughs’ own library contained the fictional Through the Earth, published in 1898 and written by Clement Fezandie. Erbzine is a good source for further reading: An Earth’s Core Notebook By Nkima ERBzine 1107: John Carter: Sword of Theosophy - Revisited I by Dale R. Broadhurst David Innes David Innes is a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs as the main protagonist of his Pellucidar novels. Associated Novels The early novels David Innes is introduced in the first Pellucidar novel, At the Earth's Core, as a mining heir who finances the experimental "iron mole," an excavating vehicle designed by his elderly inventor friend Abner Perry. In a test run, they discover the vehicle cannot be turned, and it burrows 500 miles into the Earth's crust, emerging into the unknown interior world of Pellucidar. In Burroughs' concept, the Earth is a hollow shell with Pellucidar as the internal surface of that shell. It is inhabited by prehistoric creatures of all geological eras, and dominated by the Mahars, a species of flying reptile both intelligent and civilized, but which enslaves and preys on the local stone-age humans. Innes and Perry are enslaved by the Mahars' ape-like Sagoth servants and eventually lead a revolt of humankind. To further the struggle Innes travels in the iron mole back to the surface world at the end of the first novel to procure outer world technology. David Innes returns to the inner world in the second novel, Pellucidar. With the aid of the resources he brings the human revolt succeeds. In the course of the two books Innes wins the love of the cave-woman Dian the Beautiful, defeating rival suitors Jubal the Ugly One and Hooja the Sly One. Finally Innes and Perry succeed in building a confederacy of human tribes into an "Empire of Pellucidar" that wipes out the Mahar cities and establishes a new human civilization in their place. ---- The middle novels Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs In this sequel to At the Earth’s Core, David Innes vows revenge and returns to the Inner World of Pellucidar to rescue the beautiful Dian, who had been torn from his arms by trickery. However, his return trip places him far from the land of his beloved and he is forced to undertake a desperate journey thousands of miles across the fierce inner earth to reach her. David’s epic voyage takes him through the many strange lands of Pellucidar, including the pendant moon and Land of Awful Shadow. His heart pounding encounters with primeval beasts and extraordinary peoples makes Pellucidar one of the best adventure stories ever penned by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The books after the first two show David Innes' new empire as a relatively small entity in a world by and large still primitive and savage, and even his own subjects as little affected or changed by the trappings of civilization. Innes himself appears a somewhat hapless figure, brave and resourceful, yet ultimately dependent on the superior survival skills of his friends. Years after his initial adventures, as the surface world measures time, Innes confronts a new threat, the Korsars, a nation of pirates descended from corsairs of the outer world, who had entered Pellucidar generations before through a natural polar opening connecting the outer and inner worlds. Tanar of Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs Pellucidar - the hollow center of the Earth, a land of savage men and prehistoric beasts - is the scene of this exciting novel. In Pellucidar dwell the Buried People; here is the Land of Awful Sorrow; here the terrible Korsars terrorise the oceans, while dinosaurs and saber-tooth tigers terrorise the lands. This is the story of Tanar, a young chief, and the cave girl Stellara, and of their struggle for survival against a myriad dangers. The tale is the subject of the third novel, Tanar of Pellucidar, told by his native friend Tanar and relayed to the surface by Perry via radio. The adventure ends with Innes a captive of the Korsars. He is a secondary character in this novel, and a minor one in the two that follow. In response to Perry's plea, an outer world expedition is launched to rescue Innes, in which Burrough's jungle hero Tarzan plays a major role. The rescue effort is the subject of the fourth novel, Tarzan at the Earth's Core. It enters Pellucidar in an airship via the polar opening, and eventually succeeds in rescuing Innes. The fifth novel, Back to the Stone Age, details the adventures of a lost expedition member, ultimately located by the liberated Innes. Tarzan at the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs Continuing the saga of Pellucidar, the empire located in the Earth’s hollow center, Tarzan at the Earth’s Core is the fourth work in this classic series. The American explorer and emperor of Pellucidar, David Innes, has been captured by the deadly Korsar pirates. Picking up on the desperate cries for help emanating from Pellucidar, Jason Gridley of Tarzana brings the message to the only person who can help, Tarzan of the Apes. Together young Gridley and Lord Greystoke travel to the exotic and strange realm within the Earth to save the imprisoned ruler. Unaccustomed to the difficulties of Pellucidar, the two struggle in its savage environment, with its eternal noon and bizarre monsters, in their quest to save Innes and the precarious rule he has established. ---- The late novels Back to the Stone Age by Edgar Rice Burroughs Five hundred miles beneath the surface of the Earth lies another world - a world of eternal day and endless horizons, in which dinosaurs still roam and cavemen hunt and terrors forgotten in the outer world still survive. Lieutenant von Horst, member of an exploring expedition, was left behind in this lost land of Pellucidar. Back To The Stone Age is the thrilling story of his perilous adventures, along with the cavegirl he loved, in that primitive unknown world. The Sixth novel, Land of Terror, returns Innes to the central role, relating his adventures during his return from his search mission to Sari, the capital of his empire. Savage Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs When David Innes and Abner Perry set out to search for mineral deposits in Perry’s newly invented Mechanical Prospectro, they never dreamed of discovering the beautiful, terrifying world of Pellucidar five hundred miles beneath their feet. Cast into a country of fierce fighting men, beautiful women, and vicious beasts, David and Abner take sharply diverging paths. David and his mate, Dian the Beautiful, set out to teach Pellucidar the ways of civilization and succeed in gathering a number of primitive kingdoms into the Empire of Pellucidar. Meanwhile, Abner turns his inventive genius to the science of aeronautics, with dire results for both David and Dian Savage Pellucidar, the final book in the series, presents a new sequence of adventures for Innes, Perry, and Dian, in which a hitherto unknown native Bronze Age civilization is discovered. In other media Film *David Innes first appeared on screen in At the Earth's Core (1976), an adaptation of the first Pellucidar novel. He was portrayed by actor Doug McClure. Not a great movie,but can be considered a guilty pleasure. Edgar Rice Burroughs' At the Earth's Core 1976 - 90 Minutes They're in it DEEP now! Take the Most Terrifying Journey of Your Life ! 4,000 miles to the center of the Earth to a world within a world CREDITS Producers: Samuel Z. Arkoff | John Dark | Max Rosenberg Director: Kevin Connor Writers: Edgar Rice Burroughs (novel: read the e-text edition), Milton Subotsky (screenplay) Filming Location: Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK Production Companies: American International Pictures (AIP) | Amicus Productions | Burroughs Productions Inc. TRIVIA Actor/stuntman Bobby Parr who played the Sagoth Chief, lost a finger during a fight sequence with Doug McClure that went wrong. Memorable quote by Dr. Abner Perry: "You cannot mesmerise me! I'm British!" THE STORY This is the second of three sci-fi adventures based on novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first being 1975's The Land That Time Forgot and the third being The People That Time Forgot. A Victorian scientist -- Dr. Abner Perry (Peter Cushing) -- and his young American backer -- David Innes (Doug McClure) -- set off in their new earth-boring machine for a short test on a Welsh mountain. Unfortunately the thing tunnels out of control at ferocious speed and they end up in an enormous cavern at the centre of the earth -- the twilight world of pellucidar-here despite the title,not at the Earths's Core,but in a huge underground cavern or it seems anyway. Here they find prehistoric monsters, man-eating plants and cavemen enslaved to the Meyhas (Mahars) -- evil psychic, pterodactyl-type creatures with extra-sensory abilities. They are captured, and taken to the Meyhas' underground empire. They then set out to free the slaves and themselves from the evil that has dominated this underground realm for untold generations. Journey to the Center of the Earth (released in the UK as Journey to Middle Earth) is a 2008 direct-to-DVD film created by The Asylum and directed by David Jones and Scott Wheeler. The film is a loose adaptation of the original novel Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, but bears a close similarity to At the Earth's Core, a similar novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is also the second film by The Asylum to be based on a Jules Vernenovel, the first being 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A mockbuster, it was released to capitalize on the higher-budgeted film of the same title starring Brendan Fraser. Comics *David Innes has also appeared in a comic strip and comic book series based on the novels, as well as the Tarzan comic strip.Dave Innes of Pellucidar in the Comics,first here by Whitman and later DC Comics. By late 1939, with both TARZAN and JOHN CARTER OF MARS earning royalties from comic books, the next natural Burroughs series to adapt to the comics would be his Pellucidar stories. Burroughs suggested to Western Printing (Whitman’s publishing arm in Racine) that John Coleman Burroughs be retained to do the artwork for a DAVE INNES OF PELLUCIDAR feature which would run regularly in one of their monthly comic books. * * Possibly as a test, it was decided to have John Coleman Burroughs write and draw a 20-page story to be featured as part of a one-shot comic...but the one-shot comic never materialized and instead the first 12 pages of this 20-page story were published in an obscure, badly-distributed comic book called HI-SPOT #2 (November, 1940). Because of the understandably poor sales, there was never another issue of HI-SPOT comics, and the 12 pages of DAVE INNES OF PELLUCIDAR in this issue were the only ones ever published in the medium of the comics. Following the appearance of these pages in HI-SPOT #2, Western asked John Coleman Burroughs to write and draw two six-page stories of DAVE INNES OF PELLUCIDAR, which would be worked into one of their comic books, possibly SUPER comics. These twelve pages of artwork were done and are presented here, along with the final eight pages of the original 20-page story. * *(The original artwork for the first 12 pages of the first story was destroyed long ago by Western). In early 1940, Dell Publishing wanted to create an image as a reliable publisher of wholesome comics for children. They especially wanted to push their funny animal comics… the Disney comics, Walt Kelly comics, etc... and did not want to be in the superhero business in competition with all the other comic book publishers. * * *The Burroughs comics, TARZAN, JOHN CARTER OF MARS, and DAVE INNES OF PELLUCIDAR, were all of the type they wanted to phase out in favor of more in the Disney-type comics which nobody could object to. By early 1941 the decision had been made that DAVE INNES OF PELLUCIDAR would not be continued and that JOHN CARTER OF MARS would be discontinued from THE FUNNIES, and in August of 1941 CRACKAJACK comics (also from Western Printing) dropped the TARZAN daily strips they had been reprinting. By the end of 1941 all ERB features had been dropped by Western, but of course United Features was still reprinting TARZAN Sunday pages in SPARKLER and TIP TOP comics. The following is reproduced for educational purposes. David Innes,made a few appearences within Tarzan comics,written and drawn by Russ Manning,in the 1960's.The character,was portreyed as wearing a mustache and a mohawk haircutt.Later,DC Comics,serialized another version in the pages of Weird Worlds. David Innes of Pellucidar by John Coleman Burroughs & ERB is a 32-page comic strip adaptation of ERB's At the Earth's Core. The first 12 pages originally appeared in Hi-Spot Comics, No. 2, Nov., 1940 published by The Hawley Publications, Inc., Redding Ridge, Connecticut. It was the final 12 pages of the 64 page issue. All 32 pages, plus related sketches were eventually published in 1968 by Greystoke Press in a 56-page booklet. |} |} Category:Characters in written science fiction Category:Fictional emperors and empresses Category:Edgar Rice Burroughs characters Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1914 Category:Pellucidar